Nostell Priory, time being the operative word here!!!!

 Sunny days are here again

We decided to go and take a walk around Nostell priory, a National Trust property not far from our home.  We have been here many times and I used to take my children for picnics in the grounds when they were young.  Surprisingly as it is a very old house they deal very well for those with disabilities and there were certainly lots of mobility scooters and wheelchairs around and also a lift in the house. Most things were easily accessible. 

This house was built sometime in the seventeen hundreds and was owned by the Winn family.  It was built to show off the family's wealth.  The weekend we went was a special one as there was a display of two thousand clocks to remember a very famous clockmaker John Harrison.  John was the son of the estate carpenter and decided to go in for clock making as well as carpentry.  He invented the marine chronometer, a long sought after device for solving the puzzle of calculating longitude whilst at sea.  We owe this man so much as his solution revolutionised navigation and greatly increased the safety of long distance sea travel.  So if any of you love to take cruises then you can take your hat off to this gentleman for all he gave to us.

This house is crammed with Chippendale furniture, so many that we know for a fact there are 120 pieces, a desk alone worth millions all with provenances to prove they are his work and many other pieces believed to be his work but the provenance are lost.  Lots of pieces were also lost in a fire which is so sad  There are 20 pieces dotted around the house which are his works that can actually be sat on today so of course I just had to take my place and sit on a chippendale chair!  

Set in over 300 acres of garden and parkland if like me you love history, love seeing  the places come alive then you will love this place.  

With over 2000 clocks all together this certainly was a slight to see for sure.  They were all working and all set to go off at the same time, what a cacophony of sound that would be, we sadly moved on to another room before that happened.

If you ever decide to go and visit this house then another wonderful place to visit which is very close by is the Wakefield Mining Museum.

Now my children just loved this place when they were young.   Given a helmet to wear with the torch lit brightly on the brim we were ushered into a lift and descended 140 metres underground on a tour led by ex miners to find out just what we owe to the men and children that extracted this coal for us. This is a free museum and so unlike most that your children, or indeed yourself will have been around.  My children remember it well today and remember seeing the horses underground, of course in this instance not real, that spent their entire lives in the darkness.  You will see models of children that had to crawl on their hands and knee into spaces too tiny for men to crawl into and they placed the charges for the explosions needed to loosen the coal.  Many youngsters barely saw daylight as their day began whilst the sun was not up and ended when it had gone down.  They spent most of their lives covered in the coal dust that would have inevitably killed many of them before they reached too old an age as their lungs would clog up with the dust making breathing difficult.  What a world to be born into. 

When I remember this museum and I look at my children who would never have had to do such a terrible task I am so thankful that times have moved us forward with regard to safety issues and the age of the young ones working.  So much to see and do in the towns and villages surrounding me that we are so blessed.

Goodbye Mini

My car has gone for its first M.O.T. and in a couple of weeks it will be sold on to my sister.  We made this decision as we just do not need two cars but still, I will be sad to see this beauty go, a wonderful mini in the orange with the two stripes down the front and the black roof it always looks good and draws peoples eyes to it.  Ah well, my sister will be happy at least.

Brexit

No I do not intend to get into politics here except to say that it is a momentous day as the paper has been signed to trigger this, a day that will go down in history, not only for the UK but worldwide as all look to see what will be on the agenda now for the future of the UK,  I hope it all goes well.

Mothers Day

I hope all of you who are moms enjoyed a card or a treat from your offspring.  I received the biggest bunch of flowers ever, needing five vases in total.  I was shocked when I saw just how many my daughter had bought me.  Her card as usual was full of lovely words and she also wrote some special words of her own, these are to be treasured.  

A picture paints a thousand words.

Somebody on Facebook asked us to show pictures of when we were young. I am rubbish at things like this but I was searching out old pictures and came across one of me aged six years old, the same age as my darling delightful Izzy is now so I compared our faces, do we look alike, not a bit of it.

  

Nobody looking at these would ever put us as sharing  even a single gene  as we are like chalk and cheese. Isn't it lovely to look back on the old pictures of family times, the happy and sad ones we shared.  Life is so much easier now with phones etc to take pictures so easily.  It was a pricy business back in the day so we certainly do not have half as many as we have since the mobile phone and the camera that works digitally.  I am of the era where we took the pictures and then sent off our roll of film to be developed and kept our fingers crossed that they would turn out ok.  Oh the joy when we got them back and sat down to enjoy the memory captured on film, I have many many photo books crammed full with these pictures.  On bad days, meaning bad weather days, I can sit for hours and peruse these books and all of them make me smile.

At last

For the first time in weeks I have been told I do not have to visit my warfarin clinic for TWO whole weeks.  I generally go weekly.  As it is only around the corner it is no hardship but still to think I can miss a week, bliss.

This week was a bit odd.  All the computers were down, there was no water in the machine to allow us a drink and there was somebody that fainted!  The call came out "water please quickly" from behind the curtain and another voice from in the waiting room where I was shouted that there was none.  This necessitated a quick run to the nearest tap as opposed to the machine and I assume it was given to somebody and all was well.  I did see a girl come out from behind the curtain a few minutes later with a sheepish look on her face and a word to her friend who stood up from the waiting room to greet her that she just went over all funny and fell over!  All seemed to be well and I am sure this department has many people who faint at the sight of a needle.  

Denervation news

I have still not heard back about my MRI which I am a bit sad about, I would have loved to have heard something.  However I know this is a very busy research facility so I do understand and just think that I can hang on another two months when I have another MRI.  How do I feel?  Well much better to be honest and I actually have great hopes for this procedure.  In myself I feel stronger and  my legs have stopped the wobble they always had.  I am not saying I am ditching my mobility scooter, that would be madness as I know  I do still have my bad ph days but they do not  somehow seem as bad as they were and I am still feeling positive about this. Keep watching as I will post updates as and when I have any news.  

Right, I am about to order my new disabled persons railcard which expires at the end of the month, we don't often go on trains but it is still beneficial to have occasionally.  We got the original one when I was trialling DCA and had to go down to the Imperial College for some of the tests.  It saved heaps of money having this card and I am hoping that if I improve we can take more train journeys.  

New £1 coin

I tried to get some of these from my bank yesterday only to be told they do not have any   The closest place to us that have been allocated any is Leeds, not far away, my son lives in the centre.  I thought that I would like a few brand spanking new ones as we are about to take away all the old ones belonging to Izzy.  Never mind, they will come this way in the next few days I am sure.  They say they will be difficult to copy, what is the betting it won't  take long at all.  These forgers are very clever people and will quickly get the measure of them.

I am going now to begin my day.  I hope it clears up as I want to collect Izzy on my scooter seeing as how my car is at the garage.  I hope it does not rain, not a pleasant experience sitting on a mobility scooter with the rain pouring down I can assure you.

Haver a good day, thank you again for the comments, the likes and the shares.  You are stars when you bother to do that, you really are.

Warm love to you all

Carole xxx